[OS:N:] Legislation threatening Open Source/Free software?

["Paul Fitz" <pfitz dodo com au>]

Hi everybody,

I came across this article the other day - an interview with richard
stallman http://news.com.com/1200-1120-975444.html?tag=ltcol It's dated
December 2002.

Richard mentions the legislative steps being taken by some governments and
steps taken by proprietary sofware companies which may have a negative
impact on the development and future of Open Source.

He mentions the Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act,
Digital Millennium Copyright Act, Palladium and Microsoft's Trusted
Computing initiative.

I was just wondering what other Open Source people thought of these
legislative moves/Microsoft moves - do they reallty threaten the future
existence of Open Source software?  What will Open Source programmers do if
excluded the right to use digital television. play DVDs and so on (as
mentioned in Richards article)?  Are there other legislative steps/movements
by proptietary software companies aimed at pushing Open Source out?

Cheers,
Paul